Feb., 1891 . 
THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY. 
25 
THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY.* 
BY MARY E. DALTON. 
From considering the evolution of Inorganic and Organic 
organisms, the Synthetic Philosophy passes to that Super- 
organic Evolution which deals with “ all those processes and 
products which imply the co-ordinated actions of many indi¬ 
viduals ”—a study which has, for the general student, a far 
greater value and more immediately practical aim. Social 
life, no less than individual, conforms to the general 
formula of evolution, and passes “ from an indefinite, 
incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity.” 
There is, obviously, a natural sequence among social actions ; 
and to find this, that men may avoid evil and secure good 
as the result of future activity, is the practical aim of the 
Sociologist. The value of a science of government which 
should be based upon the application of the immutable laws 
which govern the universe cannot be over-estimated; and 
complex and difficult as the study of Sociology necessarily is, 
it is amply rewarded by proving the possibilities of such a 
science. 
Having as data for our work social units whose nature— 
physical, emotional, and intellectual—we know, and with 
whose external conditions of life we are familiar, we proceed 
to an examination of the nature, origin, and development of 
all the phenomena resulting from their collective and com¬ 
bined action—all the varied and multiform phenomena pre¬ 
sented by present and past social arrangements. We trace 
our present social unit back to his remote ancestor, and see 
how natural has been the evolution of the primitive man’s 
system of thought: the one essential to right understanding 
is gained when we cease to figure the mental processes of the 
savage in terms of our own, and see him simply as the almost 
passive recipient of conclusions forced upon him from with¬ 
out. Having verified historical inference by existing proofs, 
we find the old conception of a time when “ free in woods the 
noble savage ran ” absolutely untrue. Helped by the data of 
our Sociologic science to see “ distant things as intimately 
deep as if we touched them,” we see that same savage an 
almost absolute slave of external circumstance and internal 
terror. Without reflection or developed knowledge, he could 
only learn by slow process of repeated trial, and he paid with 
*A paper read before a meeting of the Sociological Section of the 
Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, held Jun6 
20th, 1890. Communicated by Mr. W. It. Hughes, F.L.S. 
